Lasrick writes: Alex Knapp has an excellent article pointing out that NOAA satellites enabled NOAA to predict the "left hook" of Hurricane Sandy into the Eastern Seaboard, which in turn enabled local governments to prepare. Those satellites are at risk and there will be a gap of about a year between 2017 and 2018, when the old ones fail and the new ones are scheduled to launch. There's no alternative to getting that data, and the so-called "fiscal cliff" will drive an 8% cut to NOAA's satellite program, so that those replacement satellites may go up even later than 2018. Doesn't seem like a good idea.